Born Bad: The Story of Gothena Chapter 4: Home
by JeffEllis
Summary: After the events involving Zatanna, Gothena needs to get a way for a little while so she goes home.


In Darkness Dwell

The life and dark times of Gothena, a villain in the DC Universe

Chapter 4: Home

"THIS IS COMPLETELY UNNACEPTABLE" Lex yelled as he slammed his fist on the table. Circe calmly replies "What is it this time Lex? Stock prices down? Superman on the news again? What the Hell has gotten you so worked up?" "Do you not read the updates? Your daughter apparently captured and tortured Zatanna and now the Society is being blamed. We are trying to keep a low profile and open war with the Sentinels or possibly the JLA would be bad for business. The JSA raid was over and done. We kept casualties to a minimum.

There was no reason for her to escallate this. I don't like the so called heroes anymore than she does but we don't need a war with them right now." Lex was obviously agitated and continued "She did not discuss this was us. She could have just let this go and avoided an incident. Now we have the Sentinels actively hunting Society members because they think we ordered it." Joker laughed and offered up "Oh this has the makings of some real fun. A little chaos is good for the soul Lexxy old boy. I'm curious though. Are you more angry she might have sparked a war or that she did it without asking your permission first?" Lex was visibly agitated said he would handle this and stormed out of the room.

Gothena stared at the screen. Lex was angry and she was trying to decide if she cared. The female voice continued "...today in his business office. I will have a limo pick you up. We don't need undue attention to Lexcorp Tower so keep a low profile." She answered back "Why can't he just meet me at the HoD like normal? Lexcorp isn't too far from the JSA headquarters. If they're really that perturbed, why does he want me in the area?" The other woman replied "Because he still has an empire to run and business needs demand he be in his office today and Lex doesn't like to be kept waiting." Gothena looked at the screen. Mercedes rarely contacted her on Lex's behalf. This was very irregular and quite frankly, worried Gothena a bit. "Tell Lex I'll be there as soon as possible no need to send a car." She turned off the panel and went back to the training room.

"Now that the distraction is over, let's get back to your training" said Sinestro. "Let's focus on constructs." She put her arms around him. "You know how much I enjoy this but something has come up and I have to go. This will have to wait a bit because I'm going to be out of time for a while and I'll contact you when I return" she said. Sinestro looked at her as she turned to walk away. "Let yourself out dear" she continued already walking away. She went over to the console and turned on the recording system. "Lex, sorry I couldn't make your meeting. I'm going to go out of town for a while and lay low and give this some time to blow over." She set the message to auto-send in 30 minutes. As she walked out the door, she turned invisible and flew off.

 _She continued to walk away from the orphanage until she got near the gate then she walked faster and faster until she was running. She was ecstatic. She was free. She got to the river and followed it downstream until she found a road. She stayed in the woods off the road following it's general direction until she got to a small town. She had traveled for hours. She was tired and hungry and the Adrenalin had long since worn off. The scrawny girl skulked through the town, sticking to the back alleys. She scavenged from dumpsters for food and even found some old clothes. She was free. She had a full belly and some warm clothes. The priest and nuns would never find her. She didn't even know where she was. She was free and that was all that mattered._

 _At the orphanage she left behind, the old pries was on the phone with the police. "Hi Wilford. It's Father Flanagan. We had a runaway...that little blond girl that's always getting into trouble...no this time she attacked one of the nuns and then skipped out...yes, exactly, that one, the one that bit you last time...oh you have someone in the area...okay then...no no she's fine just a bump on the head no ambulance needed...oh good she needs that she's too disruptive here...see you at service on Sunday." He hung the phone up and went over to the nun who had an ice pack on her head. "It's okay Sister Katherine. He's sending some deputies to pick up the little bitch. She's going to juvenile this time we don't have to deal with her anymore."_

Lex watched a monitor screen covering a wall in his office. Mercedes and one of his top agents were with him. "Exactly as I predicted" he said. "You performed perfectly as always Mercedes." He turned to one of the agents. "Activate the drone, have it follow her at a good distance. Keep it's stealth detection and cloaking on at all times. Her actions might be slightly unpredicatable. And one more thing. The Society does not need to know this, especially Circe. We can't be sure what she'll do if she finds out what I'm planning."

Send a message to Deathstroke. Tell him Operation Family Values is a go and to be ready for contingency 4 and give him access to the drone's feed so he can stay up to speed. Send another message to Circe. Tell her that her daughter and I talked and she's going to lay low for a while so she's leaving town for a few weeks. She said she'll be fine and has a fallback safe house she's going to. If she asks where, tell her I didn't clear anyone for the information and you have to check with me for authorization and currently I'm a board meeting with shareholders and will be done in a few hours. Give her the usual platitudes and feed her ego a bit and she'll be fine for now. Hopefully that will delay her long enough to see this play out."

"Get a team en route to project site beta. Order them to remain fully concealed and take no action. I do not want her hurt. Make sure they understand Deathstroke is on the payroll for this one if anyone thinks about questioning that order. Have the chopper fueled and on the roof in 20 minutes. Prep my armor and put it on boad. I'll gear up on the way. That is all." Lex stood up, everyone else did as well and left the room.

 _The priest and the rest of the people at the orphanage ran to the door when they heard the helicopter. A large helicopter landed on the field outside the orphanage about the same time two police cars were pulling into the parking lot. Several people got out of the helicopter and the police went over to meet them. Several people emerged from the helicopter. Two were in dark suits and 4 others in military looking gear. The men in the suits walked over to the police._

 _"Gentlemen you have fantastic response times. I do apologize though, the call was not needed. We have this under control. Go back to town and forget this happened." The older of the two police spoke. "Can I see some badges? What gives you jurisdiction here?" The four other men walked up, leveled automatic weapons at the deputies. One of the men in the suits said "They do. Now leave and forget that call ever came in and that this ever happened. Gotta do what you can to keep your wife Laurie and kids Jack and Frankie safe, right?" He looked at the other cop. "And you should go check on your mother. She's so proud her boy became a cop. You should take the day off and take her to lunch." The two deputies went back to their car, visibly shaken, not saying a word, and drove off._

 _The first man one took out a communication device. "The area is secured. They sent a squad car and we scared them away. They'll be no pursuit of the girl. What do you want done with the priest and staff? Yes Mr. Luthor. As you order." The man put away the device and looked at the orphanage then back at the men. "He wants this tidy. No casualties. Our orders are just to delay any pursuit to give the girl time to get away, make sure she isn't follwed and hurt no one." He walked up to the door and the old priest met him. "Hi Father. You don't know us but we know you. We're going to sit here for a little while and when we leave, under no circumstances do you take any action or try to get anyone else to take any action to find Alicia. Are we clear?" The men with the guns turned towards the priest. "Clear as a mountain spring gentleman" he said._

Gothena had plenty of time to think while flying. Her mind was plagued by confusion. What was the big deal? We have people raising demon armies and trying to turn the world in a giant popsicle or turn everyone into plant people and that was all okay. Why the over reaction about one little hero getting scuffed up a bit by one of his people? What was his angle? He always has one. Trying to stay ahead of Lex was like trying to a game with someone when you don't know the rules and they keep changing them on you. Normally, she'd just accept his orders without question and she got to continue to have her fun but now, he was acting different. Something was up and she needed time to figure out what.

There was only one place she could go that no one knew about. Somewhere she hadn't been in many years and almost no one knew existed. It wasn't cloaked or shielded or anything so grand. It was anonymous because the people who lived there weren't people in most eyes. They were homeless. They were orphans. They were beggars. They were the people who had nothing and no one and so no one to care they just suddenly disappeared. There was a place where she grew up where you could go to disappear. Where you went when you were no one. She would go back to Deep Town.

 _As Alicia darted through the town, hiding behind dumpsters whenever she heard someone, she noticed some other kids her age. They looked like street kids like herself. She walked up to them. "Hi, I'm Alicia" she said. "I'm Kim and this is Bobby" said the other girl. "You must be new. Are you from around here? Passing through or staying?" said the boy. "I'm not really sure where I'm from. I grew up at an orphanage up the river but ran away." "We've heard of that place. We hear they beat kids. Is that for real?" asked Kim. "It is. They do that and worse. One day I'm gonna go back there and get all the other kids out" said Alicia. "Well we have to go, night's coming. Stay hidden the cops around here are mean" and the two kids walked away._

 _She ran into them several times over the next few weeks. She had started to grow fond of them. They were such nice kids. After they got to know each other, Kim told her about Deep Town. "Me and Bobby here run it. It's sort of a home for those with no homes. We didn't know if we could trust you at first but we've agreed we can. It's not much, just some old abandoned mine tunnels just outside of town. We don't have a lot but it's dry, it's safe and we grow some food in the woods around it. We sneak into town and lift any other things we need. You want to be part of our home Alicia?" Alicia looked at them and was speechless. She could form no words due to the overwhelming emtion. She just grabbed Kim and Bobby and hugged them._

She approached the area where Deep Town was located. Years ago, there had been a coal mine in this location. After a major union fight, it went bankrupt and the area was fenced off for protection then forgotten about. The local youth had started out just breaking into the buildings and other general mischief then they discovered the tunnels and started to turn them into makeshift shelters. Over the years, squatters from the surrounding towns showed up until there was a small thriving community. They took care of their own and when someone did leave, that person swore never to reveal it's location. They took down the signs and fences and hid all the entrances. If someone did stumble upon the old mine, from the outside, it was just another abandoned mine from a day long past overgrown with brush and long since forgotten about.

She walked up to the entrance and to the untrained eye, it was just a rock face on a hillside. She went up and knocked using the secret code she learned all those years ago. She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see two boys, probably not even out of their teens, standing there with shotguns. She spoke. "I'm Alicia. I used to live here. I ran into some issues and decided to come home for a while." "They ain't many that would call this place home. How long ago were you here?" the taller one asked. "Oh, I reckon it's been damn near 15 years. Had a run in with the law and this is the one places I know they won't find me" she said, her accent sounding like she never left those hills. "Does Maw and Paw Black still run the place?" "Maw Black does. Paw died some years ago" said the shorter kid. "Wait here."

 _As Alicia, Kim and Bobby walked out of town and through the woods, they passed an old apple tree. They were crab apples and sour and hard but sitting there, sharing a meal of crab apples and creek water with Kim and Bobby she almost felt like she had friends again. Not since the death of...she couldn't let her mind go back there. She was free and had to leave that place and its baggage behind, at least for now. One day, maybe when she could change things but not today. They gathered up a couple of shopping bags full of the apples and continued on._

 _The continued on until they came to a grown over clearing. They skirted the clearing to the mountainside on the east and went towards a rock face. "Bobby here is real good at hiding things ain't ya Bobby?" said Kim. Bobby didn't reply but instead pushed on a section of rock that looked like rock and it opened inward to reveal a passage. It was dimly lit with some kind of phosphorescent lichen. "That stuff grows everywhere. It don't seem to hurt nobody and lets us see without needing fires or 'lectric. One of the kids says it feeds on stuff in the rocks to glow. He's a smart one. Now, let's find you a place you can bed down and call your own" said Kim as they went through the tunnels._

They came back. "Maw Black says you can come in, you're good people." They knocked on the stone again, using the pattern Gothena recognized all too well. The door opened and a little boy pulled it back and then shut it. "Come on. Maw said to take you to her. I'm Kenneth. Maw says you two are old friends and you used to live here" the kid kept talking. Rattling on like kids are known to do. Very little of what he said was important but he was happy and she remembered for a moment what it was like to be a kid and be happy.

She had power. She had servants and minions. She had a ranking position in one of the most powerful orginazations there is answering only to its Inner Circle. There were few others in the world that could stand against her. She had the blood of a goddess and exobyte fueled superpowers. She had money. She had lavish homes. She had everything anyone could want. To be happy like a child. Carefree. No worries. She hadn't had that since she left Deep Town and she choked back tears as that came flooding back.

Maw Black, Kim as she knew her, was older and time had taken its toll. She looked and said "You aren't Alicia. Who the hell are you and why are you here?" pulling out a pistol as she did so. Gothena, realizing she looked a bit different since the exobyte transformation said "Wait, it's really me. Something happened and I'm a little different. My hair is darker and I got taller but it's really me Kim. I've missed you so much." "You're not just taller. You're different. What happened to you Alicia?" "I don't know how much news you get here. Do you know about the exobytes that started falling a few years ago and giving people powers? I was exposed to one. That and so much more. The last few years would take a lifetime to explain Kim."

"Where's Bobby I want to say hi." "Those exobytes you mentioned? We know them all too well. Some of our people were exposed and gained those powers. Dangerous stuff. One kid with powers over plants lost control. All these vines started moving like they were alive and they wrapped around him. It was..." Kim was choking up. Gothena held her. "Im sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories." "Alicia, why are you here? If you're one of those people, isn't your place out there, fighting agains the aliens and monsters in the world?" "Kim, I am one of the monsters in the world and now bigger monsters are after me. I need a place to hide." "Alicia, you're always welcome here. What happens outside of Deep Town is another world and that world ain't ours."

As Kim and Alicia talked about old times they sounded like two young girls, carefree and happy. Kim forgot for a moment the weight of Deep Town and its safety pressing down on her and Gothena was Alicia again, the young girl with her surrogate family. "So tell me what it's like. What's it like to have super powers?" asked Kim. "It's amazing and scary all at once. I was forcibly exposed. It wasn't random. My mother found me some years ago and threw me to the wolves and that's not as much a metaphor as you might think. They were technically robots under control of a nearly omnipotent alien creature but it's the same ballpark."

"Your own mother did that? My god. She sounds like the devil, no offense intended." "She's not the devil but she's been in league with him more than once. She even was responsible for me being in that orphanage. She knew what kind of place it was and what they would do. She said it was to make me hard and strong." "Lord have mercy. You seem to be taking it well" Kim said. "I've had some time to come to terms. It's still not easy but I'm dealing."

 _Deep Town quickly became home. Everyone there worked to help each other. She spent a lot of time at first just getting to know everyone. She was happy and content for a while. But she grew restless. She felt like she was being pulled away. She lived there, they were her friends but she knew deep down she didn't belong. She knew this. She didn't know how she knew but she did. She would dream of grand things. Of fights between giants. Of beautiful people living in marbled halls. Standing in a temple while having multitudes worship and fear her and it was amazing. The longer she stayed, the smaller the tunnels became until they were oppressive. She had to leave._

 _She said a tearful goodbye to Kim, Bobby and all her other friends. She took the oath that everyone took when they leave. She swore to neve reveal any details about this place or its people and she meant it. Then she took what little she had and walked outside. The sun hit her face and she started warlking. She wasn't sure what path she was taking but she knew she on her way to something._

"I know you loved Bobby, I'm sorry for your loss." Kim replied, it's okay. I've had a few years since and I'm doing better but it's always going to hurt. At least I have little Kenny to remember him by. He's the spitting image of his father and he isn't old enough to really remember him so he doesn't carry the pain with him." "The exobyte powers aren't easy to learn to control. It took me a long time and I had a very powerful mentor helping me. I couldn't imagine having something like that dumped on you and not having anyone to teach you" said Alicia.

"After the accident, some people came. They said there were there to help. The knew exactly where and how to find us. They said it was because of the kid with powers. Others like him could sense him and know how to find him. The said they would take him someplace safe and help him learn to control it. He wasn't sure he wanted to go but after Bobby...well he was scared he might hurt someone else so he left with them. They promised to keep our secret and left us some food, money and medicine. We haven't seen him since." Kim finished talking, looked distraught and sat quietly.

After a moment, when Kim seemed to have recovered from the emotion, Alicia asked "Who were they? There are a number of groups that help people like that. STAR Labs? The Justice League?" Kim looked up at her "No, no. It was none of those. They said they were with LexCorp." Gothena jumped up. "LexCorp!? They've been here? They know about this place? I have to go now. It's been great seeing you again but I need to leave." Kim stood up. "What's wrong Alicia?" "You remember when I said I was a monster and bigger monsters were after me? Well, I did something that pissed off the guy that runs Lexcorp and when it comes to big monsters, he's one of the biggest."

She travelled south, drifting in and out of small towns, eventually discovering drugs, and quickly finding that escape from her life was something she thought she needed. She never had a job or money so she had to find another way to feed the habit. She spent her time going from dealer to dealer until they got bored with her and she had to find another supplier who keep feeding her.

Then something changed. She was offering herself up as a plaything for yet another dealer when something snapped. What happened was blurry but she recalls the blade and the blood and how it felt when she watched him die. It awakened her. She felt something stir she had never felt before. She felt power. She remembered a piece of wood. The feeling of his bones breaking beneath. He was dead for some time but she kept hitting him. When she finally stopped, she was covered with his blood and didn't care. She felt good. Better than drugs. She realized she was the one with power and she decided then and there to embrace that. She took his wallet and hesitated about to take his stash then left it. She didn't want it anymore. The urge was gone. His blood washed it away. She didn't realize it at the time but she had been baptized in blood and taken the first step to her birthright.

As she was about to leave, one of the kids with the shotgun came running up to Kim. "Maw we got company. Flying machines. Never seen their likes before." Gothena stood up. Maw said "stay hidden Alicia I'll try to get rid of them. I'll try to convince them you aren't here." Gothena stopped her. "No. This is my destiny. They'll wipe everyone of you out to get to me. You won't even slow them down. You have no idea the power of the people you're dealing with here. I've hidden from it for too long. Mother is right.

"This is my fight. I'm the daughter of a goddess. I have the blood of the Titans in me. Kim, you were always a good friend. You were there for Alicia when no one else was but I'm sorry. Alicia is dead. She died the day Gothena was born. When I left that bottle I left that life behind and it was silly to think I could come back to it." Kim looked at her, crying, and said "Will I ever see you again?" Gothena, was already walking to the exit and said, without looking back, said simply "no."


End file.
